Presentation to Planning Commission on proposed landscape ordinance revisions

              -,
~ity' s land.s~aping l~~
·ihhibits:;;',i1; ..... , .. ; en~~
" " :'~';;::" .j~j~1":'-1'fi. 'r f. d.. ~ttj 7:J~ ~·,1;C".:q·.:i:
'j B.y JO'hi{ C~~~O':iV:;:Jli";~ '{"': .i:.-:)~:r .' y~aitJtie 'idid d.k '
.- ,.r';;:: ~ ·.) ,', ,:"C'h :n . ,'dl<;.l'l:4,l:: : should be;.ablt·;~·
Economic development is vital·' ,'to do it;tat~'ifiS
, tooiJrcommunity'ih6hlth:'lA-k:b'y': . therWish/::~'''~'i~
factodilibusiness',decision about' The City1i3.:·,
wher6:t(; op"'e,'n'oPixp'luid'ishow.'·''! Council trieriHtn
user-friend,ly Ii city is, In 'January;),:' " ;bej-1ToIi"tne"'Wfg '
the RiChard adininistration' arid ·--task 'force;<ire'iJ ..
City CounCilmen Crawford; H'in'es,q ~::~ca.'gerta'·'l.anrS.n,tWla::nn;0cf~'.:·,:;f"
and Talarico formed a Red Tape"" . -
Reduc-tionTask Force to identify 'scaping on ... :', '
ways of improvirig Fort Wayne's' . business prol'>.;' .
process. We have completed sever- Crawford erty. We are ~ ....
al round tables with business 'lead- just against'·. I.::
ers, a feedback questionnaire, a telling a bu:~i'-.I'';
, public hearing and several meet- ness owner what to do, My pers·on·~".
ings with city staff members in the al philosophy is that government ", _.
planning and zoning departments. should not intervene unless the' ." .' ;
The number one complaint con- action of one person physically' ,',
cems landscaping rules and regula- . harms another person or another: /.
tions. The ordinance that mandates person's property.
the landscaping in the business'. The business owner will ofteri do
private parking lot is fel ,t to be the landscaping without a mandatory r'
most onerous .. This ordinance . law; private homeowners certainly.
require~ a certain number of trees landscape without one, Business ,'.
per square foot and a certain per- owners want things to look nice":'" '
centage of the parking lot be devot- because it is their property and· . ,
ed to landscaping. because they want it to be attrac'-, 'I
A separate Screening and tive for customers.
Buffering ordinance specifies what We believe the business owner
landscaping and/or other buffers will often decide to invest in as '.' _ r;f"
need t6 separate one property from much or more landscaping than we ,
another. This remains necessary. presently require by law; tl1ey will, i '
especially when one type of land just be able to decide for themselves.
use abuts another.' Councilman Hines, Councilman ,;'.
A prime example is when a busi- Talarico and I plan to introduce a' ;"
ness locates next to a re'sidential resolution in the near future to,.' ~ '.
neighborhood. The business people have tbt; City Council ask the plan': ,
see the legitimate purpose of this. ning commission to delete certain';) ,
However, they do not feel it is gov- re-quirements of Section 157.1A3, .'
ern~elJ.t's place to dictate how, of City Code. This would remove
many trees they have to put on the mandatory landscapirig requir.e-their
own private parking lot. ments in the private parking lots of. \ ;
There is an important phil'osoph- business owners.
ica! point here. Trees and landscap- This is a small first step in our·, "
ing are nice to help decrease goal of becoming the most busi-' . :
storm-water runoff and ozone lev- ness-friendly city we can be. It .
els. But just as we don't tell private will, however, send a strong signal
homeowners how many trees to that we are serious in this endeavor. ,
plant on their lots, why should we Business pays attention to this:,
dictate to businesses what to do on type of news. Movement toward a
their private lots? Treesand land- " more business-fri'endly environ":": c't:'
scaping look nice, but so would the ment will be noticed and wel-·, ,->
most expensive grade of carpet. so COOled. This will bring favofab 'le'>'
should we mandate that? attention to Fort Wayne and ~:; . ;,;
Sometimes busines~ ow.ners;may imprqy~ Qur,competjtive abiliryto_
'~l hav~ ,sp'en(~l,l,~0:~x. /~!yt?J?l~W.ize~ J .. :,,:,-W2JP£.te.ef.99.?,~E, 9,~ye!~p}~~8t1':2-:­:;,
th~.dre'am',ofopeGlng~t1ieii.'bu~~ (rli'~;'Cmwtoral , "'i:rr"\~ Tt1e'~
.'ness"e.s'., -~:.r b''~'ffY.'h 1'ady']j 1.o 'd(' :•h av"e,~e ii-ou'g-h'"~ : .1,~' r..-O o,_r tnW,!'a 'y.' n:'e, 'c"' It' y~· C~~o'u ne·e~l I":''1(4·,,~ ..."p.w. :''; ~1·~P',.) money to ,a or ,an scapmg In :,..~!~ -:r!_.<,',' ',' ,I ',. .i " "';~""'''.:' ,'c, , '
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